Are robotic guards the answer to controlling prison costs?

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With roughly ten million people incarcerated worldwide, the amount of money that is being poured into keeping them confined is mind-boggling. At last estimate, $200 billion a year is being funneled through the world’s prison facilities to maintain their operations, money that could be used elsewhere. With governments around the globe looking to cut costs, often by either privatizing their prisons or by taking drastic actions like reducing the amount of meals they feed inmates each day, South Korea has decided to apply technology to the problem. Depicted in the video below is one of the world’s first robotic prison guards that is starting its one month trial to see how effective non-human “screws” can be inside a dangerous penitentiary.

Developed by the Asian Forum of Corrections (AFC), the robot is designed to cut down on the amount of human help that’s needed in prisons. Armed with 3D technology, as well as pattern recognition algorithms, its able to detect when trouble might erupt or if an inmate is displaying behavior that’s out of his or her normal routine. By analyzing past interactions with a prisoner, the robotic guard can alert its human controllers to potential trouble like a riot or a suicide attempt. This allows a prepared team to respond quickly to intervene.

The hope of the AFC is that by spending a large amount of money up front to develop these advanced machines the cost over the long term will decrease as prisons reduce the number of guards needed for each facility. The organization’s argument is that the robots are immune to many of the dangers their human counterparts are; bribes, injury, sickness and death. Most importantly, they don’t draw a weekly paycheck to keep them happy.

Of course, anyone who has ever seen The Terminator is going to begin the Skynet comparisons, but it’s obvious that this is the most logical direction to take the world’s prison systems (at least until we can invent carbon freezing in the real world). There are large hurdles to overcome since any kind of computer driven technology can be hacked and modified to gain access. But just like the auto industry did several years ago, the penal market will need to begin to move over to automated systems of care for the incarcerated. With more countries exploring privatization as an option to unburden their economies from the cost of keeping those people locked up, you can bet the different companies that are placing bids to take over are looking on this development with interest.

My prediction, based on what I’ve seen, is that within ten-years or so we’ll begin to see this become commonplace around the globe in countries that can afford to invest in it. South Korea also plans on creating a robot that is capable of searching prisoners, although there is no word on whether or not they will be tasked with conducting the body cavity checks when an inmate is processed into the system.

Haha, I read the article, saw red and posted before I ever saw the huge number of comments that have already said exactly what I’ve just said.

Anonymous

I give this a week in a US prison. US inmates will have these robots smuggling in phones, dope and women in a few days.

Joel Detrow

“Are robotic guards the answer to controlling prison costs?”

No, reducing the number of people in prison is the answer to controlling prison costs. We need to stop putting people in prison who only risk their own health & harm no one with their actions (end the failed drug war), reduce the rate of reoffense by actually providing inmates with a preview of how to honestly live life (the “throw them in a concrete box for 20 years with all the other criminals” approach will never work), adjust non-life sentences to be more of an actual punishment (Just being in prison for a few months sucks enough, 2 years vs 20 won’t make them hate prison any more or less) focus more on allowing offenders who have paid their sentence to live a normal life without suffering from job discrimination, and as Joshua Slaughter says in his comment, we also must ensure the prisons are actually public and run by the government, so that special interests are eliminated and corruption in the judicial system can be reduced.

Bring in the Robots! And give them guns. And no 3 rules. Give the robots cameras that can be watched online. Charge for the video feed.

Anonymous

U disgusting excuse of an animal.

jay ei

Money needs to be cut on on the purchase of things and overpaid personnel. It needs to be spent wiser. Cutting Guard jobs wont help the economy which is what this would do. Not to mention that these things are in a way a thing of the past. Just about everything I saw it do in that video could be done with essentially the same software, security cameras and speakers. No need to spend big bucks on having a bunch of rolling cameras that the inmates will undoubtedly reprogram and use to do their bidding

I agree completely other then the whole reprogramming thing at the end… Same software, cameras in front of every cell, speakers / intercom… would be better. The robots would give time for things to happen as they always have… they would be on a programmed path you could get right down to the milli sec… hey bubba that robot will not be back till 8:06 shank that mofo…

Speaking from the rather jaundiced viewpoint of a UK citizen, one could always just try reducing the size of the fucking prison population by ditching the corrupt drug-war horseshit. And, perhaps, one might attempt to avoid giving the prison-industrial-complex such clear financial incentives to *imprison* people.

There are two ways of regarding the current situation in the UK and the US:

1) The progenitors of the system really are that stupid.
2) The progenitors of the system really are that *corrupt*.

I would think more kindly of them were the first option true, but I don’t personally believe it.

No don’t use robots. They will be hacked, and manipulated by other bad people.

Ana Cloud

If the inmate fits the criteria ( they do exist) and has a special problem, then the answer is yes. I will vote and fund it to help officers lead healthier safer lives serving the community.

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